Judgment 4057
127th Session, 2019
World Trade Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The complainant challenges the decision to reduce her pension on the basis of a reduction of the consumer price index.
Consideration 3
Extract:
A consumer price index is typically a measure of movements from time to time in the prices of a basket of goods or services, usually relative to a base point established some time earlier. While often, historically, those movements have been upwards (that is, increasing relative to the base point), the very nature of the index will mean there will be downward movements at times of deflation when the price of the basket of goods and services tends towards the base point. The language of Article 32(b), and in particular the word “adjusted”, makes clear that the retirement benefits will be adjusted upwards or downwards (and potentially remain constant) depending on the movement in the Swiss consumer price index.
Keywords:
consumer price index; cost-of-living increase; pension; pension adjustment system;
Judgment 3360
118th Session, 2014
International Atomic Energy Agency
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary: The Tribunal dismissed the complaints seeking a review of the decision to apply to the complainants’ salaries the post adjustment calculated on the basis of the ICSC 2010 cost-of-living survey for Vienna.
Judgment keywords
Keywords:
complaint dismissed; cost-of-living increase; noblemaire principle; post adjustment; salary;
Judgment 2533
101st Session, 2006
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 22
Extract:
The complainant suffered a workplace injury at the Organization premises. The results of this seemingly minor accident were catastrophic and the complainant is now permanently and totally disabled and suffers from a rare illness, which has extended up both of the complainant's legs and requires him to use a wheelchair.
"The absence of an indexation clause [of the "disability pension"], however, does not remove the defendant's obligation to provide the complainant with adequate compensation. The concern that the utility of the award may be reduced through spoliation is very real and could, in times of high inflation, conceivably, have the effect of negating the very purpose of the disability pension which is to make the complainant whole despite his service-related injury. That is only a possibility, however, and the Tribunal is reluctant to order indexation as a matter of routine when the feared spoliation may never occur to an extent significant enough to seriously affect the complainant's position. Exceptionally, the Tribunal will frame its order in such a way that the complainant may apply at a future date for an adjustment to any ongoing pension payments when and if the purchasing power of such payments has been reduced by at least 10 per cent. Such applications should be by way of request for the execution of the present judgment."
Keywords:
adjustment; application for execution; cost-of-living increase; disability benefit; handicapped person; invalidity; organisation's duties; professional accident; reckoning; service-incurred;
Judgment 2089
92nd Session, 2002
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 15
Extract:
From 1986 to 2000 the organisation followed the practice followed by the coordinated organizations in adjusting both salaries and pensions in accordance with both cost-of-living and standard-of-living adjustments. In July 2000 it made a cost-of-living adjustment mandatory for pensions even if no such adjustment is made to salaries, but no provision is made for standard-of-living adjustment to pensions. "It is to no avail that the complainants criticise the effectiveness of the change or the accuracy of the calculations on which it was based, for those are not matters within the Tribunal's competence."
Keywords:
adjustment; amendment to the rules; competence of tribunal; coordinated organisations; cost-of-living increase; iloat; no provision; pension; pension adjustment system; period; practice; reckoning; salary;
Consideration 9
Extract:
From 1986 to 2000 the organisation followed the practice followed by the coordinated organizations in adjusting both salaries and pensions in accordance with both cost-of-living and standard-of-living adjustments. In July 2000 it made a cost-of-living adjustment mandatory for pensions even if no such adjustment is made to salaries, but no provision is made for standard-of-living adjustment to pensions. "It is simply untenable to argue that the [organisation] could, by following the practice of the coordinated organizations in previous years, bind itself to do so for all time [...] There can be no doubt that the same body that had the authority to adopt [the] decision [to follow the practice followed by the coordinated organizations] had equally the authority to decide to withdraw it."
Keywords:
adjustment; amendment to the rules; competence; coordinated organisations; cost-of-living increase; decision quashed; executive body; no provision; organisation's duties; pension; pension adjustment system; period; practice; salary;
Judgment 1912
88th Session, 2000
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 15
Extract:
"The methodologies adopted by international organisations for setting and adjusting the remuneration of the staff, in principle, must enable results to be obtained that are stable, foreseeable and clearly understood [...] when the applicable method uses an external index, [...] not with a view to requiring the competent body to conform automatically to the index, but only as a simple orientation', which in itself is not a breach of any rights, the staff can only be protected against arbitrariness if the criteria used in deviating from the suggested orientation of the external index are objective, adequate and known to the staff."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1821
Keywords:
adjustment; bias; coordinated organisations; cost-of-living increase; criteria; duty to inform; organisation's duties; rule of another organisation; salary; scale;
Consideration 19
Extract:
"International civil servants do not have an acquired right [...] to an automatic indexing of their salaries. [...] The establishing of regulations for the periodic adjustment of salary is within the discretion of the organisations provided that these regulations do not violate the principles of international civil service law and their application does not bring about an erosion of salary that could be regarded as substantially jeopardising the contractual balance between those organisations and their staff members."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1118
Keywords:
acquired right; adjustment; cost-of-living increase; discretion; international civil service principles; salary; staff regulations and rules; terms of appointment;
Judgment 1821
86th Session, 1999
European Southern Observatory
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7
Extract:
"The principles governing the limits on the discretion of international organisations to set adjustments in staff pay [...] may be concisely stated as follows: (a) An international organisation is free to choose a methodology, system or standard of reference for determining salary adjustments for its staff provided that it meets all other principles of international civil service law [...]. (b) The chosen methodology must ensure that the results are 'stable, foreseeable and clearly understood' [...]. (c) Where the methodology refers to an external standard but grants discretion to the governing body to depart from that standard, the organisation has a duty to state proper reasons for such departure [...]. (d) While the necessity of saving money may be one valid factor to be considered in adjusting salaries provided the method adopted is objective, stable and foreseeable [...], the mere desire to save money at the staff's expense is not by itself a valid reason for departing from an established standard of reference [...]." (See cited case law.)
Keywords:
adjustment; budgetary reasons; case law; condition; coordinated organisations; cost-of-living increase; criteria; discretion; duty to inform; duty to substantiate decision; exception; executive body; good faith; grounds; international civil service principles; limits; organisation's duties; patere legem; rule of another organisation; salary; scale;
Judgment 1765
85th Session, 1998
World Intellectual Property Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 12
Extract:
The International Civil Service Commission made a mistake in reckoning the multiplier used to work out the post adjustment for Geneva from July 1994. "There is no merit to the Commission's plea that, not having got word of the mistake until August 1995, it need not apply the proper multiplier until four months later. For one thing [...] the data needed to put it right had been readily at hand for well over a year. It was for want, not of information, but of care on the part of the Commission or its secretariat that the mistake came about. For another thing, the plea betrays an utter failure to grasp what the four-month rule means. [...] It has no bearing whatever on the Commission's correction of any mistake of its own making."
Keywords:
adjustment; cost-of-living increase; icsc decision; liability; post adjustment; salary;
Judgment 1515
81st Session, 1996
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 6
Extract:
Purchasing power at CERN has plainly declined during the last several years and recent rises in pay did not offset the fall, far from it. "Yet the trend does not amount to breach of a fundamental term of the appointment of CERN staff." The Tribunal finds no breach of acquired rights.
Keywords:
acquired right; adjustment; breach; cost-of-living increase; cumulative decisions; reduction of salary; salary; terms of appointment;
Judgment 1514
81st Session, 1996
European Organization for Nuclear Research
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 15
Extract:
As said in Judgments 1329 and 1368 "there is no obligation in law to align with the cost of living or with take-home pay. Though CERN must work out the pay raises fairly and objectively, with due regard to the relevant components, the methodology puts it under no obligation to match pay rises to trends in the cost of living in Geneva. That would be tantamount to indexing, and the rules do not require it."
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 1329, 1368
Keywords:
adjustment; binding character; case law; cost-of-living increase; organisation's duties; reckoning; salary; staff regulations and rules;
Consideration 12
Extract:
"The complainants put their cumulative loss at some 10 per cent of the purchasing power of their pay since 1990 [...] and say it impairs an essential term of employment. A fall in purchasing power below some critical point may indeed be breach of an official's acquired right. But, save where the written rules require the indexing of pay, not every financial setback the official may suffer will amount to such breach." (The Tribunal cites Judgment 832.)
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 832
Keywords:
acquired right; adjustment; breach; case law; cost-of-living increase; cumulative decisions; reduction of salary; salary; staff regulations and rules; terms of appointment;
Judgment 905
64th Session, 1988
Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Summary
Extract:
A cost-of-living adjustment is provided for in the Staff Regulations. No final decision was taken on the matter. The complainant is entitled to the adjustment.
Reference(s)
Organization rules reference: ARTICLES 3.2.1 AND 5.3 OF THE CIPEC STAFF REGULATIONS
Keywords:
adjustment; cost-of-living increase; enforcement; staff regulations and rules;
Judgment 832
62nd Session, 1987
International Labour Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 15
Extract:
"The reckoning of the pension depends on such factors as the cost of living, currency rates and rates of tax in the country of the pensioner's residence. Those are variables that may preclude the creation of acquired rights. The financial plight of the fund has over the years become alarming."
Keywords:
acquired right; cost-of-living increase; effect; exchange rate; pension; pension entitlements; reckoning; tax; unjspf;
Consideration 14
Extract:
"The first [test] is the nature of the altered term. It may be in the contract or in the Staff regulations or Staff Rules or in a decision, and whereas the contract or a decision may give rise to acquired rights the Regulations and Rules do not necessarily do so. The second test is the reason for the change. It is material that the terms of appointment may often have to be adapted to circumstances, and there will ordinarily be no acquired right when a rule or a clause depends on variables such as the cost-of-living index or the value of the currency. Nor can the finances of the body that applies the terms of appointment be discounted. The third test is the consequence of allowing or disallowing an acquired right. What effect will the change have on staff pay and benefits ? And how do those who plead an acquired right fare as against others?"
Keywords:
acquired right; amendment to the rules; contract; cost-of-living increase; definition; equal treatment; exchange rate; provision; staff regulations and rules; terms of appointment;
Judgment 608
52nd Session, 1984
European Southern Observatory
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 7
Extract:
There is a regulation which provides for the Director-General to determine the frequency of salary adjustments on the basis of variation in the rate of inflation. The Director-General chose not to exercise his discretion. "He must have proceeded upon the erroneous assumption that he was under no obligation to make any adjustment at all and so could do what he liked about the frequency." The Tribunal quashes the decision, which rests on an error of law and remits the case to the Director-General for a "new decision based on the correct interpretation" of the regulation.
Keywords:
adjustment; cost-of-living increase; discretion; enforcement; interpretation; organisation's duties; provision; salary; staff regulations and rules;
Consideration 3
Extract:
"As to its nature, a regulation designed to give protection against inflation is aimed at fixing the amount of the salary in real terms. [...] It is unlikely [...] that [such a regulation] would be framed in a manner which would permit the employer to reduce the wage if the index fell, while not requiring him to increase the wage if the index rose. Economically it was doubtless unlikely [in the country and at the time being considered] that the index would fall, but a document settling the terms of a legal relationship must provide for the unlikely as well as for the likely event."
Keywords:
adjustment; cost-of-living increase; salary;
Judgment 480
47th Session, 1982
Pan American Health Organization
Extracts: EN,
FR
Full Judgment Text: EN,
FR
Consideration 2
Extract:
"The complainant has not provided any satisfactory evidence that his salary would have increased if he had remained in the organization. It would no longer have increased by annual increments, since he had already reached the top level of his grade. His emoluments were expressed in United States dollars and there is no evidence of possible adjustments for cost of living." No such amounts will therefore be included in the reckoning of compensation.
Reference(s)
ILOAT Judgment(s): 427
Keywords:
adjustment; amount; cost-of-living increase; damages; lack of evidence; reckoning; salary;
